Fbi`s South Florida Chief To Leave, Take A New Post

Joseph V. Corless, who won both praise and criticism in directing the FBI`s South Florida operation for the past 5 1/2 years, is leaving to take command of the bureau`s Baltimore field office.

Replacing Corless is William Wells, a 20-year veteran of the agency, who was a deputy assistant director at the FBI`s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Corless took over the FBI`s Miami field office in 1980 when Arthur Nehrbrass left to join the Metro-Dade Police Department. Under Corless, the Miami office has increased from 185 agents to about 300.

He also has helped design the new FBI complex, to be situated near the Dade- Broward County line.

``In my years here, there has never been a dull moment,`` Corless said. ``The FBI`s Miami office is among the most dynamic bureau offices in the country, with everything from kidnappings to major narcotics cases.``

During Corless` tenure, the Miami office spearheaded the investigation of kidnapper Christopher Wilder of Boynton Beach, an Australian playboy whose nationwide spree of rape and murder came to a bloody end when he was killed in a shootout in New Hampshire.

It also was under Corless that an FBI agent, Daniel A. Mitrione Jr. of Cooper City, was corrupted while working a Fort Lauderdale-based undercover drug investigation.

Corless was criticized for leaving the agent unsupervised in his undercover role and vulnerable to bribes by the very smugglers Mitrione was investigating.

However, FBI officials said the transfers of Corless and Wells were routine procedures.

Wells, 48, a native of Oklahoma, headed the Los Angeles office in the late 1970s and was special agent in charge in New York from 1982 until 1984.